From 24 February to 31 December 2022, nearly 32,000 Ukrainians entered Albania. About 2,500 displaced Ukrainians who have fled the war, were estimated to be still present at the end of December.

Between 7 November and 31 December 2022, IOM conducted a Rapid Displacement and Needs assessment in Albania interviewing respondents in seven locations: Durres, Saranda, Tirana, Vlora, Kavaja, Vora and Shkodra to gather more in-depth information on the profiles, intentions and needs of Ukrainians present in Albania.

This report presents the findings of a survey administered to 101 Ukrainian refugees and seven Key Informants (KIs) from the Albanian Red Cross, the Ministry of Interior, Caritas, and two Ukrainian nationals residing in Albania, on November-December 2022. Almost 90 per cent of the interviewed were women, half of them in the age group of 30 to 39 years old.

The majority of Ukrainian refugees traveled in groups consisting of household members usually groups of up to three persons, mostly coming from Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, and Zaporizhzhia. 

Although only 40% were still employed at the time of the interview, 80% of them were employed or self-employed before fleeing Ukraine. The level of education among the interviewees was high too, two-thirds declared that they had a Master's degree or PhD. Nonetheless, almost two-thirds of the interviewees stated that they were planning to search for work in Albania.

The rapid displacement and needs assessment used a multi source and multi method approach to obtain qualitative and quantitative data from a wide range of stakeholders, and aimed to provide more in depth information on Ukrainian refugees residing in Albania in terms of profile, intentions and needs to provide additional information to first line responders, national authorities and the donor community, as well as to support a better and tailored specific response to those in need. 

Read the full report - Rapid Displacement and Needs Assessment on Ukrainian refugees in Albania